Week 4: Teach Your Children
Editor's Note: This post was emailed to the weblog address on June 25th, but was never picked up by the blog services. I've been travelling for much of the past week, and have been unable to visit or update the site. I'm sorry I wasn't able to catch the problem sooner.
After June 25th, Yuli and the convoy continued to shop for children's educational and entertainment products right up to my departure from Jogjakarta on June 26th.
The convoy is officially closed now, and I cannot tell you how much your help has meant to the people of Jogjakarta, the convoy, and me. This morning I read an article publishing data from the UN, describing aid donation as $60 million of $80 million short, in particular in the area of tents and tarps, which will still be 30% off it's "one tent per family" target by then end of July. Your donations helped make a huge dent in this area in many parts of the hardest hit areas of Jogja. Children, moms, and the elderly at the end of ungle trails there will always remember the arrival of a string of motorcycles (you'd call them 'scooters') laden with tools, shelter, food, and children's games. You did that.
Here is the week 4 post:
We are winding down the convoy now, but what a wonderful week it has been! I'm afraid there is no time to upload pictures, but I will try to add them next week. On Monday, we called on a friend we had helped , who had access to a pickup truck. We loaded 20 wheelbarrows, 100 shovels, numerous crowbars, saws, hammers, and some cooking oil and other odds and ends into it, along with one brave Indonesian man to sit on it all, and headed out to 8 different villages who had requested clearing help on previous visits. With a few motorcycles following, the truck got as close as it could to each village before the bikers finished off the delivery with wheelbarrows on their thighs. Quite a site.
That evening, Yuli and I met with a team of young educators who had been picked by the Indonesian government to develop Children's centers in 21 government-chosen locations. The concept was for the educators to deliver fun educational activities to the children in these centers with material the government provided, and on Saturday (yesterday) to train local volunteers to carry on the "playgroup" type activities for these children, who otherwise would be left to play in the dust and rubble, sit by the side of the road, or be turned to begging by their parents and village elders. The problem was that in typical Indonesian government fashion, they delivered materials for only three of the centers, and no volunteers had turned up. We all suspect the lack of volunteers is due to protracted negotiations on the payment for "volunteering"...
To cut a long story a bit shorter, Yuli and I suggested that from the convoy's travels, we could find between 6 and 10 volunteers from villages heavy with children, and we could fund the books, games, and activities for all of them. Our associates jumped at the idea. During the week, Yuli and I lined up the volunteers. The four of us spent Friday shopping. We spent about $1500 on multiple copies of 50 children's books, children's knitting patterns, badminton sets, footballs, paints, crayons, pencils, canvas, reams of paper, puzzles, educational posters, plastic bowling sets, and so on.
Saturday the volunteers arrived, and while we weren't in attendance,Yuli's sister Dewi was, as one of the volunteers. Apparently an uproarious riot was had, and the volunteers stayed and trained for seven hours, trying out every game, song, activity and reading technique on offer! At the end of the day, volunteers from SEVENTEEN villages headed off with playgroup kits for their villages...averaging more than 100 children in each village. A little teary-eyed again, I am happy to inform you that at less than a dollar per child, you have delivered fun lifeskills games and activities to the children in remote and devestated areas of this region, AND the training to ensure they will be used well. Please understand that these opportunities didn't even exist for these kids before the earthquake. In one short, crazy week you and the convoy have fostered significant change that can effect generations of area families, because some of these kids will grow up having learned to think and problem-solve and cooperate and compete healthily... at the ideal age. Thank you again.
Tomorrow we will do another, smaller round of shopping for further children's centers with the remainder of the convoy money. That will bring the convoy's operations to an end, and all of us thank you. "Thank you" is not enough, but no words are adequate. Look for further pictures, and a final general accounting at the blog in the next fortnight.
On behalf of Yuli\'s convoy,
wishing everyone love and peace,
Thank you.
After June 25th, Yuli and the convoy continued to shop for children's educational and entertainment products right up to my departure from Jogjakarta on June 26th.
The convoy is officially closed now, and I cannot tell you how much your help has meant to the people of Jogjakarta, the convoy, and me. This morning I read an article publishing data from the UN, describing aid donation as $60 million of $80 million short, in particular in the area of tents and tarps, which will still be 30% off it's "one tent per family" target by then end of July. Your donations helped make a huge dent in this area in many parts of the hardest hit areas of Jogja. Children, moms, and the elderly at the end of ungle trails there will always remember the arrival of a string of motorcycles (you'd call them 'scooters') laden with tools, shelter, food, and children's games. You did that.
Here is the week 4 post:
We are winding down the convoy now, but what a wonderful week it has been! I'm afraid there is no time to upload pictures, but I will try to add them next week. On Monday, we called on a friend we had helped , who had access to a pickup truck. We loaded 20 wheelbarrows, 100 shovels, numerous crowbars, saws, hammers, and some cooking oil and other odds and ends into it, along with one brave Indonesian man to sit on it all, and headed out to 8 different villages who had requested clearing help on previous visits. With a few motorcycles following, the truck got as close as it could to each village before the bikers finished off the delivery with wheelbarrows on their thighs. Quite a site.
That evening, Yuli and I met with a team of young educators who had been picked by the Indonesian government to develop Children's centers in 21 government-chosen locations. The concept was for the educators to deliver fun educational activities to the children in these centers with material the government provided, and on Saturday (yesterday) to train local volunteers to carry on the "playgroup" type activities for these children, who otherwise would be left to play in the dust and rubble, sit by the side of the road, or be turned to begging by their parents and village elders. The problem was that in typical Indonesian government fashion, they delivered materials for only three of the centers, and no volunteers had turned up. We all suspect the lack of volunteers is due to protracted negotiations on the payment for "volunteering"...
To cut a long story a bit shorter, Yuli and I suggested that from the convoy's travels, we could find between 6 and 10 volunteers from villages heavy with children, and we could fund the books, games, and activities for all of them. Our associates jumped at the idea. During the week, Yuli and I lined up the volunteers. The four of us spent Friday shopping. We spent about $1500 on multiple copies of 50 children's books, children's knitting patterns, badminton sets, footballs, paints, crayons, pencils, canvas, reams of paper, puzzles, educational posters, plastic bowling sets, and so on.
Saturday the volunteers arrived, and while we weren't in attendance,Yuli's sister Dewi was, as one of the volunteers. Apparently an uproarious riot was had, and the volunteers stayed and trained for seven hours, trying out every game, song, activity and reading technique on offer! At the end of the day, volunteers from SEVENTEEN villages headed off with playgroup kits for their villages...averaging more than 100 children in each village. A little teary-eyed again, I am happy to inform you that at less than a dollar per child, you have delivered fun lifeskills games and activities to the children in remote and devestated areas of this region, AND the training to ensure they will be used well. Please understand that these opportunities didn't even exist for these kids before the earthquake. In one short, crazy week you and the convoy have fostered significant change that can effect generations of area families, because some of these kids will grow up having learned to think and problem-solve and cooperate and compete healthily... at the ideal age. Thank you again.
Tomorrow we will do another, smaller round of shopping for further children's centers with the remainder of the convoy money. That will bring the convoy's operations to an end, and all of us thank you. "Thank you" is not enough, but no words are adequate. Look for further pictures, and a final general accounting at the blog in the next fortnight.
On behalf of Yuli\'s convoy,
wishing everyone love and peace,
Thank you.
posted by Unknown at 7:52 PM
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